Newtown's belief leads to upset

HOCKEY: Newtown has produced one of the upsets of the men's A1 season, downing minor premiers Red Lion at Clyde Park.

Heading into the Friday night encounter, Red Lion was unbeaten against Toowoomba opponents.

That was until they came up against a rejuvenated Newtown side.

The two sides played out an intense first half, before Josh McPaul gave the underdogs the lead on the stroke of half-time.

They carried that momentum into the second-half, with Nathan Mead's strike three minutes into the half extending the lead, and McPaul's second before three-quarter time giving them an unassailable 3-0 victory.

Manager Keith Wilkie said his side was able to frustrate the minor premiers throughout an intense first half.

"It was a really tough first half, and it was tough for them as well,” Wilkie said.

"Teams get to the stage where they wonder what they've been doing wrong, because we're getting on top.

"We looked to try and frustrate them into mistakes, and that goal on half-time really gave us a lift.”

Wilkie said they were able to build off the back of that in the second half in order to put Red Lion away.

"They came back and were really pumped after that,” he said.

"We knew we could beat them deep down.

"Red Lion always comes back when they are down and they lift and try to be first to the ball, but we might've just had that half-step on them.”

Despite being overjoyed with the result, Wilkie said the team won't be getting carried away with just one round of the regular season remaining.

"They are still the team to beat,” he said.

"They've always been a hard task over the years, but this result showed us we can mix it with the best.

"We've got one more round game, so we'll be looking to keep that roll on, get to the finals and try to be there on grand final day.”

The A1 women made it a clean sweep for Newtown on the night, with a last minute goal to Amber Mutch giving them a 2-1 victory over Red Lion.